The Words At Large podcast has an episode they are calling “Science And Science Fiction” this week. It features interviews with Daniel H. Wilson, Dava Sobel.
Download the |MP3| direct, or subscribe to the podcast:
http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/includes/wordsatlarge.xml
And of course, Apocalypse Al must be freed!
A big O’ heap of SFF goodness from Blackstone Audio.
Eifelheim
By Michael Flynn; Read by Anthony Heald
14 CD, 17.5 hrs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9781433206115
In 1349, one small town in Germany disappeared and was never resettled. Tom, a contemporary historian, and his theoretical physicist girlfriend, Sharon, become interested. By all logic, the town should have survived, but it didn’t. Why? What was special about Eifelheim that it utterly disappeared more than 600 years ago?
In 1348, as the Black Death is gathering strength across Europe, Father Deitrich is the priest of the village that will come to be known as Eifelheim. A man educated in science and philosophy, he is astonished to become the first contact between humanity and an alien race from a distant star when their interstellar ship crashes in the nearby forest.
Tom, Sharon, and Father Deitrich have a strange and intertwined destiny of tragedy and triumph in this brilliant novel by the winner of the Robert A. Heinlein Award.
The Sharing Knife; Vol. 1, Beguilement
By Lois McMaster Bujold; Read by Bernadette Dunne
10 CD, 12 hrs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9781433206238
Young, pregnant Fawn Bluefield has just fled her family’s farm to the city of Glassforge, where she encounters a patrol of the enigmatic soldier-sorcerers known as Lakewalkers. Fawn has heard stories about the Lakewalkers, wandering necromancers with no permanent homes and no possessions but the clothes they wear and the mysterious knives they carry. What she does not know is that the Lakewalkers are engaged in a perilous campaign against inhuman and immortal magical entities known as “malices”. When Fawn is kidnapped by one of these creatures, it is up to Dag, an older Lakewalker heavy with sorrows and responsibilities, to rescue her. But in the ensuing struggle, it is not Dag but Fawn who kills the creature—at dire cost—and an uncanny accident befalls Dag’s sharing knife, which unexpectedly binds their two fates together.
The Green Trap
By Ben Bova; Read by Stefan Rudnicki & Kathe Mazure
8 CD, 10 hrs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9781433206177
Microbiologist Michael Cochrane has been murdered. His brother, Paul, wants to find out who did it and why. It’s clear that Michael was working with cyano-bacteria, the bacteria that crack water molecules and release free oxygen. It’s less clear why this would get anybody killed.
Accompanied by a beautiful industrial spy, Elena Sandoval, Paul follows the trail from California to Cambridge, Massachusetts. Along the way, the truth emerges: Michael had found a way to get cyano-bacteria to crack hydrogen out of simple water molecules, producing enough hydrogen to cleanly power the world, practically for free. No wonder everyone, from Middle-Eastern heavies to hired domestic muscle, suddenly seems to be trying to get in Paul and Elena’s way.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
By Jack Finney; Read by Kristoffer Tabori
6 CD, 6.5 hrs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9780786157815
“I warn you that what you’re starting to read is full of loose ends and unanswered questions….Now if you don’t like that kind of story, I’m sorry, and you’d better not read it. All I can do is tell what I know.”—from the book
On a quiet fall evening in the small, peaceful town of Mill Valley, California, Dr. Miles Bennell discovered an insidious, horrifying plot. Silently, subtly, almost imperceptibly, alien life-forms were taking over the bodies and minds of his neighbors, his friends, his family, the woman he loved—the world as he knew it.
First published in 1955, this classic thriller of the ultimate alien invasion and the triumph of the human spirit over an invisible enemy inspired the acclaimed 1956 film, directed by Don Siegel and starring Kevin McCarthy, one of Time magazine’s 100 Best Films.
Where’s My Jetpack?
By Daniel H. Wilson; Read by Stefan Rudnicki
3 CD, 3 hrs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9780786160822
A Guide to the Amazing Science Fiction Future That Never Arrived
It’s the twenty-first century and let’s be honest—things are a little disappointing. Despite every World’s Fair prediction and the advertisements in comic books, we are not living the future we were promised. By now, life was supposed to be a fully automated, atomic-powered, germ-free Utopia, a place where a grown man could wear a velvet spandex unitard and not be laughed at. Where are the ray guns, the flying cars, and the hoverboards that we expected? What happened to our moon colonies and servant robots?
In Where’s My Jetpack? roboticist Daniel H. Wilson takes a hilarious look at the future we imagined for ourselves. You will learn which technologies are already available, and if the technology is not public, you will learn how to build, buy, or steal it. Where’s My Jetpack? is an entertaining look at the world that we always wanted.
Lots of new release out right now. First up is a FREE one. A podiobook that took nearly a year to finish. Tracy Hickman’s near future dystopia The Immortals is now COMPLETE! Point your web-browser towards Podiobooks.com, sign-up and subscribe.
The Immortals
By Tracy Hickman; Read by Tracy and Laura Hickman
40 MP3 Files – [UNABRIDGED?]
Publisher: Podiobooks.com
Started: April 2007
It’s 2020, and an attempted cure for AIDS has mutated into a deadlier disease, V-CIDS. The U.S., under martial law, has set up “quarantine centers” in the Southwest. Searching for his gay son, Jon, media mogul Michael Barris smuggles himself into one of centers only to discover that it and the other centers are actually extermination camps. With a strange assortment of allies, including the leader of the camp’s gay barracks, an army officer and a local cowboy, Barris precipitates an inmates’ rebellion that promises the unraveling of the death-camp system and the overthrow of the government that established it.
Let’s not forget the venerable and always reliable TellTaleWeekly, selling short stories for great prices!
The Star
By H.G. Wells; Read by Alex Wilson
1 MP3 , Ogg Vorbis or AAC File – Apprx. 30 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: TellTaleWeekly.org
Published: April 2007
Just $1.00 payable via PayPal. One hundred and one years before the films Armegeddon and Deep Impact entered U.S. theaters, the father of modern Science Fiction scared the crap out of Victorian London with this, the first of such death-from-above SF tales.
Hurray for Tantor Media! They’ve got lots of waycool stuff in the works including lots of Asimov…
No Humans Involved
By Kelley Armstrong; Read by Laural Merlington
10 CDs or 1 MP3-CD – Approx. 12 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Tantor Media
Published: May 2007
ISBN: 1400104416 (CDs), 1400154413 (MP3-CD)
Jaime knows a thing or two about showbiz, as a woman whose special talent is raising the dead, her threshold for weirdness is pretty high: she’s used to not only seeing dead people but hearing them speak to her in very emphatic terms. But for the first time in her life—as invisible hands brush her skin, unintelligible fragments of words are whispered into her ears, and beings move just at the corner of her eye—she knows what humans mean when they talk about being haunted.
The Caves of Steel
By Isaac Asimov; Read by William Dufris
6 CDs or 1 MP3-CD – 7 Hours 30 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Tantor Media
Published: May 2007
ISBN:1400104211 (CDs), 1400154219 (MP3-CD)
A millennium into the future, two advancements have altered the course of human history: the colonization of the galaxy and the creation of the positronic brain. Isaac Asimov’s Robot novels chronicle the unlikely partnership between a New York City detective and a humanoid robot who must learn to work together. Like most people left behind on an over-populated Earth, New York City police detective Elijah Baley had little love for either the arrogant Spacers or their robotic companions. But when a prominent Spacer is murdered under mysterious circumstances, Baley is ordered to the Outer Worlds to help track down the killer. The relationship between Baley and his Spacer superiors, who mistrusted all Earthmen, was strained from the start. Then he learned that they had assigned him a partner: R. Daneel Olivaw. Worst of all was that the “R” stood for robot—and his positronic partner was made in the image and likeness of the murder victim!
Simon & Schuster Audio even has a new title!
City Of Bones
By Cassandra Clare; Read by Ari Graynor
12 CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Published: March 2007
ISBN: 0743566572
When 15-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder — much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It’s hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing — not even a smear of blood — to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?
And of course, nobody is publishing more Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror audio than the wonderous Blackstone audio…
Where’s My Jetpack?
By Daniel H. Wilson; Read by Stefan Rudnicki
3 Cassettes, 1 MP3-CD or 4 CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: April 2007
ISBN: 9780786148707 (Cassettes), 9780786171606(MP3-CD), 9780786160822 (CDs)
It’s the twenty-first century and let’s be honest—things are a little disappointing. Despite every World’s Fair prediction and the advertisements in comic books, we are not living the future we were promised. By now, life was supposed to be a fully automated, atomic-powered, germ-free Utopia, a place where a grown man could wear a velvet spandex unitard and not be laughed at. Where are the ray guns, the flying cars, and the hoverboards that we expected? What happened to our moon colonies and servant robots?
Variable Star
By Robert A. Heinlein and Spider Robinson; Read by Spider Robinson
8 Cassettes, 1-MP3-CD or 10 CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: May 2007
ISBN: 9780786149384(Cassettes), 9780786170159 (MP3-CD), 9780786158843 (Cds)
At his death in 1988, Robert A. Heinlein left a legacy of novels and short stories that almost single-handedly defined modern science fiction. But one of Heinlein’s masterpieces was never finished. In 1955, he began work on Variable Star, a powerful and passionate tale of two young lovers driven apart by pride, power, and the vastness of interstellar time and space. Then he set it aside to focus on other novellas. The detailed outline and notes he created for this project lay forgotten for decades, only to be rediscovered almost a half century later. Now the Heinlein estate has authorized award-winning author Spider Robinson to expand that outline into a full-length novel. The result is vintage Heinlein, faithful in style and spirit to the Grand Master’s original vision.
Komarr
By Lois McMaster Bujold; Read by Grover Gardner
8 Cassettes, 1 MP3-CD or 9 CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: May 2007
ISBN: 9781433202575 (Cassettes), 9781433202599 (MP3-CD), (CDs)
Komarr could be a garden with a thousand more years’ work, or an uninhabitable wasteland if the terraforming fails. Now, the solar mirror vital to the terraforming of the conquered planet has been shattered by a ship hurtling off course. The Emperor of Barrayar sends his newest imperial auditor, Lord Miles Vorkosigan, to find out why.
Blackstone Audiobooks has a solid line-up of Science Fiction and Fantasy for the spring and summer 2007. Among the many titles is Variable Star, the “collaboration” between Robert A. Heinlein and Spider Robinson which of course will be read by Spider Robinson. Also, interesting, but not listed below, Blackstone will be selling the The Twilight Zone Radio Dramas. Already underway is the Orson Scott Card’s Alvin Maker series, the first of which came out this month – these are re-issued and re-recorded with multiple narrators, likely by master audiobook producer Stefan Rudnicki (the series was previously recorded in abridged versions for Dove Audio, with readings by Nana Visitor).
Here’s the all-new line up:
Memory
By Lois McMaster Bujold; Read by Grover Gardner
[UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: March 2007
Red Prophet (#2 In The Alvin Maker Series)
By Orson Scott Card; Read by various readers
[UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: March 2007
Where’s My Jetpack?
By Daniel H. Wilson; Read by Stefan Rudnicki
[UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: April 2007
Variable Star
By Robert A. Heinlein and Spider Robinson; Read by Spider Robinson
[UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: May 2007
The Invasion Of The Body Snatchers
By Jack Finney; Read by Kristoffer Tabori
[UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: May 2007
Dr. Roboto! We’re following up on our recent review of Daniel H. Wilson Ph.D‘s How To Survive A Robot Uprising: Tips On Defending Yourself Against The Coming Rebellion we’ve got links to some cool behind the scenes-style “special features” for you:
First, HERE‘s a cool MP3 interview with the author himself, it was conducted by Rick Kleffel of the long running review site The Agony Column.
Second, IT Conversations and Dr. Moira Gunn interviews Wilson, you can snag the MP3 HERE.
Third, Wilson is the featured guest on The NeoFiles Podcast (Show #21). The MP3 for which is right HERE.
And last, Google Video invited Wilson to speak about and read from his book at their Jan 2006 “Author Series.” You can check out the audio (and the oh so useless video) of that event HERE.
How to Survive a Robot Uprising: Tips on Defending Yourself Against the Coming Rebellion
By Daniel H. Wilson; Read by Stefan Rudnicki
1 MP3-CD – 3 hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2006
ISBN: 0786177128
Themes: / Science Fiction / Science Fact / Humor / Robots / Computers /
Today, scientists are working hard to bring these artificial creations to life. In Japan, fuzzy little real robots are delivering much appreciated hug therapy to the elderly. Children are frolicking with smiling robot toys. It all seems so innocuous… and yet, how can so many Hollywood scripts be wrong? How could millions of dollars of special effects lead us astray? So take no chances. Arm yourself with expert knowledge for the sake of humanity. Listen to serious advice from real robotics experts. How else will you survive the inevitable future in which robots rebel against their human masters?
— Daniel H. Wilson
If you’ve been sitting up nights, concerned about this dangerous uprising of robots and other computerized gadgets against the human race, then this book is for you. In here, you’ll find tips on how to outrun a two-legged robot and how to survive a high speed chase involving a robot car. The tools you’ll learn to use will allow you to confuse, distract, and escape from all kinds of robots, from “toaster to Terminator”.
Daniel H. Wilson, the author, is a Ph.D. candidate at the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University. He’s written a fabulous, funny book that is both entertaining and informative. “Every scenario in these pages,” he says, “is either possible or already being realized.” In each section, Wilson describes the current state of a certain type of robotics, then, by describing how a human can defeat the technology, he reveals the limitations.
I loved this audiobook. Stefan Rudnicki did an excellent job capturing the mock-seriousness of the subject matter. How To Survive a Robot Uprising is both a primer on the current state of robotics science, and a hilarious send-up of science fiction involving robot rebellions. Rarely has science fact been mixed with science fiction to providing such an entertaining book. I’m eager to hear it again, and will as soon as I’m done typing.
Posted by Scott D. Danielson
